KENNEWICK _ A woman is dead after an early morning crash Sunday in Kennewick that started with a shot fired at a police car, leading to a chase.
The woman was a passenger in a dark-colored car that collided with a Benton County sheriff’s car after deputies began chasing it, according to a Kennewick Police Department report.
The incident began about 4:20 a.m. Sunday as a Kennewick police officer was parked in the 100 block of North Edison Street.
A dark-colored car was being driven south past the officer, when a gun was fired from that car at the police officer, according to a police report. The officer was not hit.
As law enforcement officers searched for the car, a Benton County deputy spotted one that matched its description at South Union Street and Creekstone Drive.
When the car did not pull over, Benton County deputies pursued it. The car crashed into a Benton County Sheriff’s Office car at Eighth Place and Vancouver Street, according to a Kennewick police report.
The sheriff’s car then crashed into a concrete retaining wall.
A female passenger in the suspect’s car died before she could be taken to a hospital. Police are calling her death a vehicular homicide.
A deputy in the sheriff’s office car that was hit was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening.
A 35-year-old Kennewick man was driving the car that hit the deputy’s car, according to a police report. He was treated at a hospital before being taken to the Benton County jail.
By 11 a.m., the Benton County jail roster showed Antonio De Jesus Martinez was being held on suspicion of drive-by shooting, vehicular assault and vehicular homicide/neglect.
The name of the woman who died was not released Sunday morning, as police worked to notify her relatives.
The Washington State Patrol is investigating the crash, and the Kennewick Police Department is handling the criminal investigation.
Part of Vancouver Street from 10th Avenue to 7th Avenue was closed to traffic Sunday morning as detectives investigated.
